Fuel additive

ABSTRACT

A fuel additive is provided and includes a mixture of about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character and about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol, wherein the mixture had been heated to about 100° to about 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character. The present invention further provides a method of providing a fuel additive. The method includes mixing about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character with about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol and heating the mixture to about 100° to about 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/892,626, filed Mar. 2, 2007, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a fuel additive and methods of providing such a fuel additive. The fuel additive of the present invention can be used with various fuels for internal combustion engines.

There is a clear need for new fuels or fuel additives for use in internal combustion engines in motor vehicles. This need is two fold. First, there is a tremendous need and desire in the United States to limit our dependency on fossil fuels. Although alternative fuel sources would be ideal, the most likely short term and practical solution is to more efficiently use fossil fuels. In addition to the more efficient use of such fuels, there is a desire to reduce the high levels of pollutants generated by internal combustion engines. The adverse effects of such pollutants upon the health of people and of the environment is a major concern.

Various solutions to the need for new fuels and/or fuel additives have been proposed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,563,101; 4,110,973; 4,985,593; 4,565,548; 4,920,691; 5,156,114; and 5,951,722, and U.S. Pat. Publication No. 2004/0107634A1. There, however, remains a need for fuel additives that increase the efficiency of existing fuels and reduce the adverse affects associated with the pollution generated by burning fossil fuels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To this end the present invention provides a fuel additive. The fuel additive comprises a mixture of about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character and about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol, wherein the mixture had been heated to about 100° to about 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character.

The present invention further provides a method of providing a fuel additive. The method comprises mixing about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character with about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol and heating the mixture to about 100° to about 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is described more fully hereinafter. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising”, when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The present invention provides a fuel additive that can be added to various fuels to increase fuel efficiency and decrease emissions such as particulate matter, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide by up to about 100 percent. The fuel additive comprises a mixture of about 5 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character and about 80 to about 95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol or both. The mixture is formed by mixing the components together and applying heat to about 100° F. to about 200° F. or higher to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character. The fuel additive may also include oxygen, i.e., it may be oxygenated.

The liquid having an aqueous character consists primarily of water, normally greater than about 90 percent water by weight, and can be essentially pure water in certain circumstances. For example, a liquid having an aqueous character can be distilled water, tap water, or the like. However, a liquid having an aqueous character can include water having substances such as pH buffers, pH adjusters, organic and inorganic salts, sugars, amino acids or surfactants incorporated therein.

The fuel additive may be added to a wide variety of fuels used in internal combustion engines. Suitable fuels include but are not limited to: gasoline, diesel #1, #2, and #4, bunker fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, JP8, fuel oil, heating oil, liquid coal, propane, liquefied natural gas, and the like. When the fuel additive is used with any of the above listed fuels, the amount of liquid having an aqueous character can be varied to obtain different compression ratios. When used in diesel engines, in this embodiment, ethanol is not used alone but is blended with the isopropyl alcohol.

In operation, the fuel additive is provided by mixing the liquid having an aqueous character with ethanol or isopropyl alcohol. Heat is then applied to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound or entrained with the liquid having an aqueous character. Typically, the heat is applied for 1 to 100 minutes. In one embodiment, oxygen can be percolated through the mixture for 1 to 60 minutes to increase combustibility.

When the fuel additive is used with a fuel, the burn rate of the fuel is slowed, the fuel to air ratio is “leaned”, the fuel has more energy per unit of fuel, the combustion chamber and the exhaust system are cleaned, and steam is expelled through the exhaust system.

The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although a few exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the claims. The invention is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein. 

1. A fuel additive comprising a mixture of about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character and about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol, wherein the mixture had been heated to about 100° to about 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character.
 2. The fuel additive of claim 1, further comprising oxygen.
 3. A fuel for a combustion engine comprising a fossil fuel and a fuel additive comprising a mixture of about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character and about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol, wherein the mixture had been heated to about 100° to 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character.
 4. The fuel according to claim 3, wherein the fossil fuel is diesel fuel and the amount of liquid having an aqueous character is about 0.05 to about 2 percent by weight.
 5. The fuel according to claim 3, wherein the fossil fuel is gasoline and the amount of liquid having an aqueous character is about 0.05 to about 3 percent by weight.
 6. A method of providing a fuel additive comprising: mixing about 0.05 to about 20 percent by weight of a liquid having an aqueous character with about 80 to about 99.95 percent by weight of ethanol or isopropyl alcohol; and heating the mixture to about 100° to about 200° F., or higher, to remove any ethanol or isopropyl alcohol not intimately bound with the liquid having an aqueous character.
 7. The method according to claim 6 further initiating the step of oxygenating the mixture after the step (b) of heating the mixture. 